


Starman

by klancers



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, M/M, Space Pirates, don't really have a plan for this one, i'll update tags as i go along is guess???, only recently started writing again so be nice, short chapters so i can update more
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 05:01:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29521248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/klancers/pseuds/klancers
Summary: ‘I’m Keith.’‘Keith?’ Lance wrinkled his nose. ‘What kind of a name is Keith?’‘Seriously?’ Keith snapped back. ‘I save your life and the first thing you do is criticise my name?’‘First of all, mullet,’ Lance replied, a sly grin creeping onto his face, ‘saving my life? That’s a bit of a stretch. I was doing perfectly fine with the whole hand-over-the-wound situation. Secondly, is that seriously a mullet? Earth called - they decided to halt the final stages of global warming to try and comprehend why the hell you’d give yourself that ‘do.’-Or, Keith is a space scavenger and Lance is in a lot of shit.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi it's me again, back with another klance fic because why not?!
> 
> This one actually has multiple parts, too! Brilliant.
> 
> Some things to note:
> 
> 1\. I'm not planning on this being super long but I also don't really have much of a plan for this, like, in general. So we'll see what happens.
> 
> 2\. Do I know when this is set? Hell no! Maybe it's the distant future, maybe it's like, 200 years time. but it's the future. I guess that's mostly what's relevant. Main point is that aliens aren't a thing yet.
> 
> 3\. Because this is going to have multiple chapters, I'd really appreciate feedback and constructive criticism!! Mostly to keep me motivated. I'm on twitter and tumblr @/klancers (though I don't really use tumblr) or drop me a comment!!!
> 
> Enjoy!

Keith wouldn’t have noticed the ship if Shiro hadn’t been trying to hack his comms with a message reminding him to consume something that wasn’t coffee. The pop-up notification, alerting him of a ship wreck in the area, cut off Shiro’s stern voice from the speakers. Frowning, Keith glanced out of the window. Behind what could only be described as a mound of icy rubble there was a small, blue spaceship. Within a few moments, Keith was on course to dock with it. 

Keith was a scrap collector. So was his father, and his father before him. He didn’t have the self-restraint to join the military, like his brother, Shiro, so he opted to continue the family business. Collecting parts from wreckages and attempting to stay out of trouble. Of course, when you’re passing through the vastness of space, staying out of trouble isn’t easy. Keith had gotten into his fair share of... altercations with pretty much everyone, from an entire planet’s naval fleet to a hell of a lot of space pirates. Keith’s inability to just follow rules was somewhat of an Achilles heel and a popular subject of discourse (for lack of a better word) between him and his brother. Shiro thought selling what were essentially stolen parts, scavenged from various parts of the galaxy, was too lowly for Keith. Keith liked lowly, though. He also, secretly, liked trouble. 

As far as wreckages went, Keith figured this one was fairly low on the trouble-meter. The ship was in pretty bad shape, but he was able to dock and the systems were working well enough so that Keith didn’t have to enter all suited up. God, he hated space helmets. Goddamn things made him claustrophobic. What he did like, was weapons. He kept a firm hand on his favourite knife (which he had actually just sharpened that morning) as he stepped onto the foreign vessel. 

It was a mess. The lights flickered as he tiptoed down the corridor and attempted to gain his bearings. It was narrow and bleak; the walls were just panels of metal, and the floor was a weird rubbery material that Keith suspected could be wiped clean of any suspicious substances should the owners be boarded by anyone with authority. He hated that this ship reminded him of one owned by pirates. The kind you were warned to stay away from in the infamous scavenger rule book. The only reason he kept walking was because the ship was so beat up it couldn’t possibly have survivors. 

‘God? Is that you?’ a weak voice called out, and Keith nearly jumped out of his skin.

‘I-I’m armed. Show yourself!’ Keith shouted, pulling his knife from its holder.

‘Hngr,’ the voice replied. There was a thump. ‘I didn’t think we’d have guns in heaven. Am I in hell?’

‘It sure looks like it,’ Keith mumbled, creeping round the corner. He was met with a man - well, the dude looked around his age, so a man-boy? Keith didn’t like to think of himself as a man - who was sprawled across the floor. He had his hands pressed tightly to his abdomen, where something deep and thick and red was seeping out of him. ‘Shit.’

‘You’re not God,’ the man-boy replied, brushing his sand-coloured curls out of his face so he could get a better look at Keith. ‘Aw, damn, I’m about to die in the presence of a super hot guy. Sure, universe, embarrass me one last time before I leave. It’s not like that banquet on Altea wasn’t enough of a cringe-fest to keep me cushy for life.’

Keith knelt down next to the man-boy. ‘Move your hands.’ 

‘Hot guy, you’re crazy.’ 

Keith grunted, grabbing the other boy’s hands and yanking them away from the wound. He yelped in pain. 

‘Shut up,’ he said quietly, ripping open the guy’s suit with his knife. He was glad he’d sharpened it now. Quickly, he pulled a glowing blue patch from his back pocket and slapped it onto the other guy’s stomach. The noise that came out of the wounded boy’s mouth was almost inhuman. 

‘What have you done to me?’ he groaned, doubled over in pain.

‘Saved your life,’ Keith replied nonchalantly. When the boy didn’t reply, he sighed. ‘It’s a healing patch, dumbass. It’ll seal the wound and speed up the healing process. Let’s just hope it wasn’t too deep that you’re bleeding internally, too.’

The boy sat up slowly and gazed into Keith’s grey eyes with his own blue ones. Blinking, he reached out his hand towards the shorter boy. Instinctively, Keith hand flew to his pocket, searching for his knife. 

‘Hey, hey! I just wanted to do a handshake. Damn! I’m Lance. You got a name?’

Keith stared. ‘I’m Keith.’

‘Keith?’ Lance wrinkled his nose. ‘What kind of a name is Keith?’

‘Seriously?’ Keith snapped back. ‘I save your life and the first thing you do is criticise my name?’

‘First of all, mullet,’ Lance replied, a sly grin creeping onto his face, ‘saving my life? That’s a bit of a stretch. I was doing perfectly fine with the whole hand-over-the-wound situation. Secondly, is that seriously a mullet? Earth called - they decided to halt the final stages of global warming to try and comprehend why the hell you’d give yourself that ‘do.’

Keith was flabbergasted. He grew even more confused when Lance smacked him on the shoulder and began howling with laughter. He thought about stabbing the other boy, he really did. Then he could just strip the ship and leave. No one would ever know what he did. But for some reason, Shiro’s dumb voice was playing in his head on some kind of Goddamn loop, telling him he was better than the occupation he was in. And, he supposed, better than stabbing someone for laughing at his hair. Stupid Shiro and his stupid voice of reason. 

‘Please shut up,’ was the reply Keith opted for. For some reason, Lance listened to his plea and stopped laughing. 

‘I’m kidding man. I heard mullets are totally in right now, this side of Jupiter. Now, I hate to be that guy, but the people that left me on this ship might have mentioned something about planting a bomb around here somewhere, and I don’t know about you, but I can’t help but notice that beeping noise that’s getting faster and faster and fast-‘

Lance was cut off, because Keith had slung him over his shoulder and was running back down the corridor and boarding his own ship. He really should get paid more for this, he thought.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> big apologies this has taken so long to post. and that it's so short. had some personal stuff going on!

The two boys managed to make it far enough away from Lance’s ship before it blew up, that the debris wouldn’t reach them. Keith was strapped in, piloting them out of the danger zone. He had dumped Lance into the medical chair and thrown him some low-level painkillers. Lance was currently downing the tablets, his legs sprawled all over Keith’s dashboard. 

Keith couldn’t even be bothered to tell him to move. He had just nearly died and everything that had just happened was starting to sink in. Shiro was right. The job wasn’t worth it. He’d nearly blown up in the middle of nowhere, hours away from the nearest dock. His body would’ve never been found. And now he had a random guy on his ship. A random attractive guy. 

Lance was attractive, there was so denying it. His chestnut brown hair tumbled down in curls that covered his face, which meant he was constantly flipping it out of his sight line endearingly. His deep, blue eyes were benevolent but piercing. The kind of eyes that had seen things they could never tell; the kind that captivated you until you realised, rather uncomfortably, that you’d been staring for slightly too long. His skin was deep and golden, and despite the near death experience, he seemed serene as he tipped his head backwards and rested his eyes. 

Keith needed him off his ship. 

‘So,’ Keith began, refusing to look over at his companion. ‘Is there somewhere I can drop you off? Anywhere you need to be? I’m happy to take you.’

Lance opened his eyes, blinking slowly. ‘Hm. Where’s the best place to go for total immunity from space pirates?’

Keith scoffed, turning his gaze to the taller boy. He looked at Lance’s face. ‘Oh. You’re not joking.’

‘I’m not joking,’ Lance repeated grimly. ‘I’m thinking the UG?’

Keith’s eyes widened. The United Galaxies? What kind of deep shit was this guy in? 

The United Galaxies was formed after the five main colonies of earth began travelling outside of their planetary boundaries. When space travel became cheaper and more accessible, the United Nations became too small, and too powerless, thus was dissolved and replaced with the UG. The UG united all the planets that had been inhabited by humans since the final stages of global warming had rendered earth’s atmosphere inhabitable. Why the hell did a kid like Lance need the help of the UG?

‘Listen,’ Keith said quietly. ‘I can take you wherever you need to go. But I need you to be honest with me and tell me who left you on that ship.’

Lance slowly moved his feet off the dash. He seemed smaller now, somehow. More vulnerable. ‘My, uh, my crew left me on that ship. And I built the bomb once I realised they weren’t coming back.’ 

Keith was silent. He wasn’t sure what to say. ‘I-‘

‘You’re right,’ Lance spoke clearly. ‘That I need to be honest with you.’

‘Ok,’ Keith nodded. ‘Ok.’

‘I was a pirate. Don’t freak out. Not the bad kind. We fought the bad kind. We still trespassed though, which I guess makes us pirates. Made,’ he corrected himself. ‘So, we got around a lot, right? Picked up a lot of crew along the way. There was this one dude, Lotor. We didn’t have a captain, but if anyone was in charge, it was him. Weird guy. Taller than anyone I’ve met, and paler. He just didn’t look... human.’

Keith didn’t like where this was going. 

‘So Lotor was a dick,’ Lance continues. ‘How he ended up being a good pirate, I’ll never know. So on top of the pirate-avenging, we sometimes did some scavenging. Illegal scavenging, I guess, because none of us had a licence. So, you’ve heard of Altea, right?’

‘Of course.’ Who hadn’t? Altea was the last habitable planet that hadn’t been colonised by humanity. No one knew why. 

‘We were in the area near Altea when Lotor told us he had found the scavenging job to end all scavenging jobs. We’d never have to work again if we did this job. Of course, we all lapped it up. No work ever again? Sounds peachy. Believe it or not, vigilante piracy doesn’t exactly pay well. So Lotor took us to Altea. There’s people there, Keith, except they’re not... people. They look like us, but they’re different. They have this, this magic. I don’t know what else to call it. Turns out Lotor wants to harvest it from them and sell it as the most powerful clean energy in the galaxy. Like, literally kill them.’

Keith chest was pounding. ‘You’re insane. Is this your idea of a joke? I say I’ll help you and you tell me lies like I’m stupid?’

Lance looks deflated. ‘I know it sounds ridiculous. But please, just listen. They found out what Lotor planning to do. We helped them defend themselves, me and my crew mates. None of us wanted to carry out Lotor’s plan. He wanted to murder innocent... well, not people, but... yeah, no, people. Different, but people all the same. This one Altean, she died saving me.’ Lance took a deep breath. ‘But this... this was the consequence.’

Keith could only gaze in absolute wonder as Lance closed his eyes and began to glow through several small, blue markings on his skin.

‘Holy shit.’


End file.
